Private kitchens used to stand in the epicenter of Moscow social life due to the lack of public space in this city. But even today, despite an abundance of catering-to-all-tastes places, true party goers are gathering around kitchen tables again, at least once in a week.
New musical project named ‘Kitchen’ combines two leading trends in local night culture - the spread of tiny close clubs uniting people with same specific interests and sudden rise of live talk format when young people tend to listen to djs talking about their music rather than listening to the music itself. Under ‘Kitchen’ label there had been already the whole series of lectures delivered by popular Moscow-based musicians demonstrating their erudition not only in sampling and tuning but also in the whole range of issues related to independent culture.
‘Kitchen‘ evenings gather a vivid and thoughtful crowd of various people which you would never see sitting together in any other places. The latest lecture, presented by guys standing behind Xuman label, rose a question which has always been the weakest point of any Russian artist: Why is it so difficult for local electronic and live musicians to get rotated in European and American charts? Xuman labeled artists show that it is not a cultural deadlock – the only thing you need to do is not only create and play it immediately to club kinds but also constantly practice in your studio.
At the moment this young but promising label is based in the attic of a huge house lost in the forests outside Moscow. Musicians coming to record their tracks in the Xuman studio often stay here for weeks without leaving the estate. Well, it can be boring enough but it definitely influences quality of their music.